


An injured lion still wants to roar

by Rogue_Disciple



Category: Fallout: New Vegas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-25
Updated: 2018-04-25
Packaged: 2019-04-27 17:18:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14430405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rogue_Disciple/pseuds/Rogue_Disciple
Summary: Old one shot I dug up. What it usually looks like when Joshua conquered a tribe. Title comes from a quote by Randy Pausch.





	An injured lion still wants to roar

He stood there in the white dust, the fine angry grain of the Badlands. It dusted the golden lion's head standard on a red field. It coated the slaves and the soldiers and him. They coughed and spit, and Joshua could not see the difference between them. He breathed in clear air of the deep blue-almost-black of his officer’s _lacerna_. He was surrounded by a sea of copper and red, and the garish colors of the subdued tribes. All alone he wore the blue, slowly fading to white. He was before his legion. Six thousand men all sworn to die if he demanded it. Six-thousand-one men, all fighting under a lie. Six-thousand and one dammed souls. More, now, to swell the bloated ranks or line the beds. He surveyed the rows of captives. His centurion struck the backs of a few who looked up, trying to comprehend this madness that not even their drug addled brains could conjure up. Some women began to weep furtively. Too many things had changed that day. The wind was picking up and the Legate saw it fitting. Let the sands erase those who could not find root, let it bury them under the only truth left in the world. It would cover the blood and excrement and rotting bodies. A contingent of vultures flew in lazy stringent circles, waiting for him to take his leave. He owned the viscera he spilled. He owned it on his clothes, body and soul. 

He wished for water. He did not so much wish to make this a long speech. He released the blue cloth and the wind snagged at it angrily. A man’s severed head was held in his other hand, its face already deforming and unrecognizable from afar. He stepped fully into their view, their haunted eyes taking him in as he began to patrol their dammed ranks. He looked like a sand blasted god, but a god nonetheless.   
He felt less than god-like himself. He had made similar speeches a hundred times over and he was thankful, if only to himself, that his voice was always sure. He told them his own story in those speeches, but they did not know the man he once was. None of them ever could. 

“You are no longer the desperate, pathetic scattered tribes of Arizona. You are now subjects of his lord Caesar. He will give you purpose like you’ve never known. Your lives will not be wasted in this once-judged world. You will know resolve, you will know yourselves…”

His men always stopped for those little soliloquies even when they could not understand the tongue in which he dictated. Once they had all heard it for the first time on their knees. That first time his voice had sent a chill through their blood. For many long forgotten, it had spilled it. Now it seemed like he was growing tired of it, dismissive to the point of mockery. They made it a sport, trying to find the weakness in his voice, for they were filled with resentment and fear. But every time without fail they stopped to listen, and every time in that way he won. Do not think you can overpower the wary lion. It is still a king. 

The centurion was dragging a man by his long ruddy hair though the condemned. He tossed him at Joshua’s feet. When he righted himself, he looked up at him in a daze. One eye was swollen and purple-gray, like the color of an evil storm on the white of his face. Bright blue paint was sloughing off with his sweat and blood. Joshua held the head to his level, let him look. The man’s voice hitched, found its footing, began to shout the name of his son... The centurion cursed and kicked him.

“Welcome to The Legion.”

**Author's Note:**

> Joshua was described as dressing differently from the rest of the Legion, so blue or black would stand out more. Plus the black is a hint to the SWAT vest he later dons. I like to imagine that he had his own standard, a lion (which features in Christianity quite a lot, a hint at his past) along with the Legion Bull.


End file.
